The Story of Moldy-Forehead
"During a famine a child asked his mother for something to eat. Then his mother cut off the upper part of a dog salmon for him, and he thought it…
From: Unknown To: 1905 C.E.
Location: Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, Canada
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Haida Texts and Myths, compiled by John Reed Swinton, 1905.
Moldy-Forehead
[Told by Tom Stevens, chief of Those-born-at-House-point]
During a famine a child asked his mother for something to eat. Then his mother cut off the upper part of a dog salmon for him, and he thought it was not enough. He said it was too small and began to cry.
After he had cried for a while he went out with it. He chewed it up and put it into a swampy place by the beach. Then the dog salmon swelled up there, and there was a great quantity of it. He was sorry at having lost it. Then he began to cry.
After he had cried for a while two persons came and stopped there in a narrow canoe and invited him to get in. Then he got into it. After he had gone along with them for a while the town came in sight, and they landed in its very middle, before the chief's house, and he went up with them. Then they had him sit in the rear of the house and gave him some food. A person sitting in the corner of the house, who was half rock, said to him: "Do not eat that. I am half rock because I ate it." So he did not eat.
He went out to play with the children. One day there was such a great quantity of salmon eggs about that he sat down and, inside of his blanket, put them into his mouth. Then a child looked at him and shouted, "Moldy-forehead is eating our excrement."
Then the one who was half rock said to him: "When you are hungry go over to the stream that flows by one end of the town. Then take out one of the salmon that come up into it. Cut it open, and, when you have made a stick for it, roast it and eat up all the parts. Put its bones into the fire. Look about the place carefully [to see that none are left out]."
Then he went thither and did as he was directed; and, after he came away, the eye of the chief's son became diseased. Then the one who was part rock told him to look around in the place where he had eaten salmon, and when he did so he found the hard part surrounding the salmon's eye with the stick stuck through it. He put it into the fire; and when he came back not the least thing was ailing the one whose eye had been diseased. It had become well. The souls of the Salmon people were what came into the creeks there.
Then the person who was half rock said to him: "When you become hungry, go thither. Take care of the bones. Put all into the fire." And, when he became weak from hunger, he went to it as directed, took salmon, made a fire for them, and ate them there. One day the rib of some one became diseased. Then he again searched there. He found a rib. That he also burned. When he returned the sick person had become well.
One day, after he had been there for some time, people came dancing on their canoes. Then they landed and began to dance in a house, and the one who was half rock said to him: "Now go behind the town. Then break off a young hemlock bough. Shove it into the corner of the house over there where they are dancing. Do not look in after it."
Then he did so, and when he felt strange (curious) about it, he looked in. His head got stuck there. He barely could pull it away. His face was half covered with eggs. He scraped them off with his fingers. And he pulled out the hemlock bough. The eggs were thick on it. Then he went to the end of the town and ate them at the creek.
Then the Herring people started off. Some time after that the Salmon people also began to move. They started off in one canoe toward the surface of the earth. They loaded the canoe. Some stood about with injured feet and eyes bound up, wanting to go. The people refused to let them. After the provisions had been put on board they hunted about among these, found some one, pulled him up, and threw him ashore. They did not handle such carefully. One of these had hidden himself. In the fall many of them have sore feet and their eyes are sore.
Then Moldy-forehead also got in with them. After they had gone along for a while they saw floating charcoal. Part of them were lost there. After that they also came to where foam was floating. There some of them were also lost.
After they had gone along for a while from that place they came to the edge of the sky and, standing near it, they counted the number of times it descended. After it had closed five times they passed under it, and the canoe was broken in halves. It was split in two. Then few were left, they say.
After they had gone on for a while longer they saw what looked like many stars. Those were the salmon inlets, they say. Then three, four, or five got off the canoe. Where the inlets were large ten got off. Then they came to where people stood at the mouth of the creek. After they had been there for a while they stood up and the people said "E'yo." Then they made them ashamed, and they sat down. People kept saying "E'yo" to them.
When it was evening he saw his mother with pitch on her face weeping. He also saw his father walking about. After they had gone along for a while they said they had built a fort for them. Two went up to see it and said it was not quite finished. After that they went up again to see it. They said it was not quite finished; but the next time they went up to see it they said it was finished.
Then it was fine weather, and they pulled off a pole from inside the edges of the canoe and shook the sky with it. At once rain began to fall. Those in the canoe were happy. They prepared themselves. They shook their insides with anger, because they were going to fight the fort. That [the fort] was a fish trap, they say. At once they started up in a crowd.
He recognized his mother and swam ashore in front of her. Then his mother tried to club him, and he escaped into the creek. And when he did the same thing again he let his mother club him to death.
And when his mother started to cut off his head for immediate cooking the knife clicked upon something on his neck, and she looked. She recognized the copper necklace her son used to have around his neck. Then she put him upon a clean board. And his father stayed in the house [instead of going fishing]. She put him on the top of the house.
After four nights had passed over him a slight noise began in his throat. The top of his head came out. As the nights passed, he continued to come out. By and by the salmon skin was washed off him by the rain, and he entered the house. Then he became a shaman. They sang for him.
They moved away, and the next year they came to the same place to get salmon. When the salmon came again and ran up a shining one was on top. Then he told them not to spear it, but it was the very one they tried to spear. By and by he made a spear for himself and speared it. When he had pulled it ashore, and the salmon died, he, too, died. He did not know that it was his own soul.
Then they made him sit up and sat above his head. They dressed some one to look like him, who went round the fire while they sang. They also beat his drum. At the same time they sang for him. After four nights were passed they put him into a pool where salt and fresh water mingled, where he had directed that he should be placed. They laid him upon the plank on which he used to lie. Then they put him there (in the pool). They also put his drum there. After this had turned around to the right for a while it vanished into a deep hole in the bottom. And now, when there is going to be plenty of salmon, they hear his drum sound in the deep place.
Here the story ends.
Swanton, John Reed. Haida Texts and Myths. Washington Government Printing Office. 1905.
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